Information for journalists

EPO President Benoît Battistelli
and President of the Turkish Patent Institute, Prof. Dr. Habip Asan, opened a
conference of Europe's patent information centres (PATLIB) yesterday in Istanbul.
More than 250 representatives of patent offices and patent information centres
from all over Europe are meeting on 15/16 May for the 24th annual PATLIB
conference, one of the largest gatherings of its kind. This year's conference
is a networking event, organised by the EPO in partnership with the Turkish
Patent Institute (TPI).

EPO President Benoît Battistelli opens PATLIB conference in Istanbul

"Close co-operation between the EPO and the national patent
offices of its member states is important to enable us to provide better
services to European industry," said EPO President Battistelli. "As the first
point of contact for companies and inventors locally, the PATLIB centres play a
crucial role in providing information and services on patents," he said.
"Having competent and highly qualified centres across Europe will promote
public awareness of IP issues, and contribute to the innovativeness and
competitiveness of the European economy."
President Battistelli also expressed his deepest condolences on
behalf of all EPO staff to the Turkish people for the tragic loss of life in the mine accident in Soma.

"We appreciate the fact the European Patent Office is not limiting its
co-operation activities to the national patent offices, but is also including
the patent information centres which are like envoys of these offices," said
TPI President Prof. Asan. "I believe that the most important element that makes the
European Patent Organisation and European Patent Office the most prestigious
regional industrial property authority is this inclusiveness. This will pave
the way for spreading out the awareness of industrial property to all the
layers of society."

The PATLIB network is made up of
more than 300 regional patent information centres in the EPO member states. The
centres are very diverse in terms of size, service profile (ranging from simple
library to sophisticated IP consultancy services), and host organisation (from
universities and industry associations such as chambers of commerce to
technology centres and national patent offices) but they all play a key role in
providing information and advice to users of the patent system.

The EPO supports the PATLIB
centres via the national IP offices as part of its co-operation with its member
states. This support aims at extending the range and quality of services
offered to users by providing training and tools to PATLIB staff, and enhancing
the public visibility of the centres.

On the initiative of the Turkish
Patent Institute, more than 70 PATLIB centres were established in recent years
throughout Turkey and a strong national network of patent support service
centres is emerging. The commitment and support of the TPI has been
instrumental in this development.

Co-operation with Turkey

During the visit, the heads of
the EPO and TPI also met with rectors and vice-rectors of Turkish universities
and leading Turkish businesses, in order to exchange views on their needs and
on how to improve the patent system in Europe. The EPO and TPI also discussed
bilateral co-operation activities. One joint project completed recently is the
addition of Turkish to the EPO's free online machine translation tool Patent
Translate, which benefits inventors and
companies in Turkey and across Europe by providing
easier access to a huge amount of patent information about the latest
technologies.

Turkish companies are
increasingly patenting their inventions in Europe. In 2013 there were more than
900 filings from Turkish applicants at the EPO, up 32% over the previous year.
The top fields of technology for Turkish companies were pharmaceuticals,
consumer goods, furniture and medical technology. Turkey has been a member of
the European Patent Organisation since 1 November 2000.